'In Francisco's work he showes true craftmenship in a broad diversity of genres.'

Gaudeamus Award 2014 Nominee

Francisco Castillo Trigueros

Francisco Castillo Trigueros has been in Chicago for six years. He loves it. “The city is attracting more and more talented composers and musicians.” He teaches composition but also works as an instructor at Columbia College’s Digital Music Lab. At the New Music School, a renowned private institution, his students are from various backgrounds. “One is a lawyer who is writing an opera.”

Castillo Trigueros is not the only composer to leave Mexico but he speaks highly of the cultural scene in his native country. “There are some excellent ensembles such as Onix, Liminar, and the Fonema Consort. And let’s not forget the festival Foro Internacional de Música Nueva Manuel Enríquez.” He works with a contemporary dance company from the city of Mazatlán. “Delfos Danza Contemporanea. Fantastic performers!” A video project is in the pipeline for which he will create an electronic music score. “It includes a dance on eggshells, which results in beautiful and subtle crunching sounds”.

The pinnacle of fragility, surely. His piece Sur les débris, for base flute and electronics, is equally refined. “The underlying base is a distorted poem by Rimbaud, which I recited and recorded myself.”

He wrote his first songs when he was just 12 or 13. Can he imagine a life without composing? “There are periods when I don’t write anything down but the process never stops!”